{"id":3258,"date":"2015-03-16T19:40:14","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T01:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/handyvandal.com\/?p=3258"},"modified":"2015-03-16T19:40:14","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T01:40:14","slug":"shelter-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/handyvandal.com\/wphv\/2015\/03\/shelter-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Shelter 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Things got heavy when I played this animal-mothering game.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

– Leigh Alexander<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2013 there was a game called Shelter, where you played a badger ushering your cubs to safety from predators and forest fires and other peril. I avoided it, because from what I heard the appeal was supposed to be how bad you felt when one of them inevitably died.<\/p>\n

In the just-launched Shelter 2, you now play a mother lynx. You, the player, get to name each of four different-colored kittens — that’s after you guide the expectant mother through the dark, away from the wolves snapping at her heels, to a hilltop den at the base of a tree. If you succeed at raising any of them to adulthood, the game promises, you can then carry on their lineage.<\/p>\n

… The very worst part was the day they came out of the den on their own and began to follow me. Just then I remembered the sound of the wolves on the day the babies were born, and nothing could make me continue playing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n